Yonin Monogatari
by Mistress Nika
Summary: From a future ruled by eldritch horrors, four desperate ninja send themselves back to the moment of their births. Empowered by bijuu and hailed as prodigies, they set out to save their world. Time Travel.


**Title:** Yonin Monogatari (lit. "four people story/legend")  
 **Author:** Mistress Nika  
 **Rating:** R (I'd say no one under sixteen, I'm not sure what the rating for that would be)  
 **Summary:** From a future ruled by eldritch horrors, four desperate ninja send themselves back to the moment of their births. Empowered by bijuu and hailed as prodigies, they set out to save their world. However, in the shadows lurk sinister forces that may catch these Legendary Four unprepared. Enemies new and old, new powers and friendships, a mysterious man with malevolent designs on one of our heroes and an overarching need to protect what is most precious will drive these four to previously unknown heights of power and grandeur.  
 **Pairings:** Sakura/Sai/Naruto/Sasuke  
 **Warnings:** language, het, slash, possible femslash, polyamory, violence, OOC, alternate character interpretations  
 **Disclaimer:** I do not own Naruto.

 **PLEASE READ THESE NOTES BEFORE BEGINNING THE FIC!**  
I take no responsibility for offended sensibilities if you ignore them.

 **Pairings:** This will, in the future, involve some serious and unrepentant polyamory. Our four heroes are together, _all_ together, right from the start of the fic. It may also involve some dom/sub and bondage where Sasuke is concerned. He has issues and kink in the bedroom is how he copes in the wider world. I won't be going into explicit detail, but the personal relationships between the characters play an important part in shaping their personalities. Please, no complaints about gayness, straightness or perversion of any kind. Consider this your one warning.

 **Warnings** : A very big warning I will give right off. In this fic, there will be mention of young children performing sexual acts LONG before most of the civilized world would consider them ready. Please keep in mind that they are ninja and they are not really children in anything but body. It will be horrifying, even to other ninja, the idea that very young children would take seduction missions, but for these particular children, they are fully capable of dealing with the situations, mentally and emotionally, and see their sexuality as just another weapon in their arsenal. It's not intended to be sexy and, when utilized, will be treated as the disquieting act it is.

Now, if there's anyone left still interested, on with the fic.

* * *

She was born in early spring, as red as a boiled lobster and screaming at the top of her lungs. The medic-nin who'd delivered her spirited her away past a waiting couple, both clinging to each other in desperate worry, terrified for the fate of their little girl. Healers rushed her into intensive care where she was carefully nursed back to health over the next few weeks. Her entire body had been burned and seemed to have been damaged at the cellular level, but she would survive and likely never suffer any ill effects from the harrowing event.

What caused it? Well, that was simple. The tiny little baby had enough chakra to make a Jonin green with envy. The stress that the birth placed on the infant must have caused her to flare her chakra instinctively in distress. It had happened before. Birth was often traumatic for the child, just as much as the mother. It was a routine event in most clans for babies to be born flinging out wild bursts of chakra. It wasn't normally dangerous, as newborns had such small amounts, and it was a good sign that they'd be powerful ninja one day.

This little baby's painful ordeal likely stemmed from her unknown ancestry. Her mother hadn't been talking and there were limits to the techniques they could use on a pregnant woman. Konoha had laws about such things, even for those accused of espionage and attempted assassination of the Hokage. The woman was probably lucky that she had died in childbirth. Now that her baby had been born, there was nothing holding them back from a proper interrogation.

Of course, a close eye would be kept on the child. Her mother was an Iwa-nin and her father likely was a ninja as well. Without knowing their identities, she would have to be watched for developing a Kekkei Genkai. To that effect, she was handed to a civilian couple to raise. Haruno Kizashi and Mebuki had both attended the academy as children, like so many others, but failed to become Genin. They would provide a stable home and still be able to watch out for anything unique about her development, things that may escape the notice of a busy, active duty ninja.

Retired ninja were few and far between. Any that made it to retirement were either too old to raise a child or had retired to raise their own. Neither were good candidates for parenting a child who needed special attention paid to her. Two academy drop-outs would, at the least, be able to notice the little things that clan-born children did that set them apart from their civilian counterparts.

What troubled the Hokage most, when her odd birth was brought to his attention, was that little Sakura's burns looked very similar to some he'd once seen on Uzumaki Kushina. Officially, she claimed to have overloaded her chakra coils while trying an experimental jutsu, but he knew the truth. She'd been exhausted, drained of chakra and terrified for her life. She'd lost control for a brief second and been burned by a chakra surge from the beast within her.

The Iwa woman had been three months pregnant when she'd been captured. Her fetus would have been just barely old enough to support one of the lesser Bijuu. The idea that they had an infant jinchuriki from another village, one that some could claim had been stolen, was a troubling thought. If it were true, it could serve to provoke yet another war should it come to light. A war with Iwa, a village that already held great hatred for Konoha, on the heels of the war that had so recently ended, could destroy them.

He would have to investigate the possibility before he could decide on a course of action. Luckily, it was an issue that would keep. He was extremely busy, as it was, and was looking forward to welcoming his own child into the world. Once his son was born and his wife stable, they would go together to visit the Haruno family.

Unfortunately, the foremost experts on jinchuriki in Konoha, and arguably the world, would never make that meeting.

Meanwhile, Haruno Sakura grew up in a relatively normal family, with loving parents who had all but given up on ever having a child of their own. They doted on her, spoiled her and made sure she never wanted for anything. No one ever told them they could possibly be raising a Jinchuriki and they had long stopped thinking of her as adopted from an enemy. She was their daughter and no one could ever tell them differently.

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It was raining the night he was born.

The streets of Konoha were empty of all but a few shinobi as dark storm clouds filled the sky. Wind blew in powerful, sporadic gusts strong enough to knock limbs off trees and threaten less sturdy roofs. Lightning filled the horizon in bright flashes as peals of thunder rolled across the land. The rain had not yet begun to fall and the atmosphere was heavy with anticipation.

The main house of the Uchiha compound was brightly lit, white-clothed medics rushing to and fro, as members of the clan gathered to welcome their Head's newest child into the world. It was early that morning when Uchiha Mikoto had gone into labor and nurses, medic-nin and a midwife had been called from the hospital to tend her. It was now almost midnight and still the baby had not come.

The woman's agonized screams cut through the air on the heels of each clap of thunder and some of the older members of the clan had begun murmuring about ill omens. The unseasonable storm had come on at the same time as her labor pains and had continued to build ever since. With each scream the woman gave, the roof creaked from the force of the wind and the lightening grew ever closer.

Fugaku paced anxiously outside his wife's door. His heart ached in sympathy with each of his wife's anguished cries. He was no expert in childbirth, indeed he knew little about women's issues, but he knew this prolonged labor could not be a good thing. Itachi's birth had been relatively simple and quick. The midwife had come with her medic-nin assistant, given his wife a strong painkiller and less than an hour later he had his son. This time, however, his wife had labored for nearly two hours before the midwife had sent her assistant to the hospital for more help.

A nurse rushed out of the room carrying a bundle of bloody linens as another entered carrying fresh ones and he eyed the two women intently, willing them to tell him something. They both carefully avoided meeting his pointed gaze and carried out their tasks with steely determination.

Fugaku felt his hands begin to shake. He knew how much blood was in the human body and how much a person could safely lose. Something was desperately wrong and for the first time in many years, he began to feel fear.

The three clan elders with him watched with somber eyes as their leader bowed his head and uttered a soft prayer, imploring any gods who would listen to spare the lives of his wife and child.

The three men jumped as a bolt of lightening arced across the sky, turning downwards and striking the roof with a loud, heart-stopping crack. They started and then exchanged speculative glances as the wind suddenly died and a flicker of fire broke out where the bolt had struck, quickly dowsed as the clouds opened up and the rain began to fall in sheets.

The storm had finally broken.

The cry of a baby cut through the night as rain pelted the village and Fugaku quickly realized his wife's torment had come to an end, one way or another. A moment later, a nurse appeared with a reassuring smile on her face and he felt some of his anxiety lift. She ushered him in, closed the door behind him and presented him with a squirming bundle swaddled in a fluffy blanket. His wife lay exhausted, sweaty and dangerously pale on fresh sheets as a nurse wiped her brow with a wet cloth.

"We've given her a mild sedative," the chief medic said quietly as he approached. "She should sleep peacefully the rest of the night, but I'm leaving a nurse here just in case. The birth was difficult and she will need some time to recover."

"What caused it?" Fugaku asked of the man with a stern expression that clearly said he expected answers, even as he cradled the newborn to him gently and protectively.

Clearly weary and beyond social niceties, the medic let out a heavy sigh and raised a hand to scratch tiredly at his forehead. "That's the odd thing," he answered, shaking his head in confusion. "Second births are usually easier than the first. He wasn't turned wrong and there wasn't any scarring from her last that could have impeded this one. He just didn't seem to want to come out, or maybe he was waiting for something. Either way, the child is healthy and your wife will be fine."

Putting aside the strange circumstances for the time being, Fugaku looked down into the face of his second born. He took in the sleeping visage of his youngest son, black hair and pink skin with a cherub face, and smiled.

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He was born in a dark, windowless basement room to a teenage prostitute.

He thought he may have been a few months older than Naruto, but he couldn't be sure. It was probably early autumn, judging by the clothes worn by the aging whore who grudgingly took care of him for the short time he was there.

He'd never wondered if his parents had loved him, as they'd always been non-entities to him. His memories of his life before Root were nearly nonexistent and such ponderings were not encouraged there. He'd dared to ask Danzo about his parents only once and he'd been told that tools do not have parents. He never thought on it again.

Now, he wished he didn't know.

He wished he didn't know that his mother never nursed him, never held him or sang to him. The only time she even looked at him was when he screamed his little lungs out, desperate for attention, and then only in disgust. She stayed in that room with him for the few days it took her to recover, then returned to her trade and never thought of him again.

Sometimes, he wondered what would have happened to him, the unwanted son of a whore, had the Kyuubi not flattened that brothel, killing everyone in it, except for the baby in the basement.

It was an Uchiha who dug him out. The man took one look at his pale skin, dark hair and dark eyes, and nearly took him home with him, certain that he was one of the many children from his clan that had gone missing in the aftermath and were presumed dead. In the end, unable to find anyone still living who was missing a child of his age, he took him to the orphanage instead.

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He was born in the fall.

That was all he wanted to remember about his birth. He wanted to pretend he didn't know his parent's faces, didn't know if they loved him or if they'd thrown him away like trash. He wanted to pretend he didn't hear his mother's scream, see his father's tears. He wanted to forget looking into the face of madness, and knowing that there was absolutely nothing he could do to stop it.

He didn't think it was a good thing that he could remember having a giant lupine manifestation of pure chakra shoved into him. He wanted to pretend he didn't feel the all-encompassing agony of having a being of such power fill him full of anger and fire, then be locked away deep inside him. He didn't have to pretend he'd passed out.

The matron at the orphanage cared for him, which surprised him as he hadn't remembered that.

Maybe it was because she'd been told his name was Uzumaki and she remembered fondly the red-haired woman who loved children and spent time with her little orphans. Maybe it was because, when she checked the list of those killed in the Kyuubi attack, she'd found that same woman's name, listed as killed-in-action with special honors given posthumously for going above and beyond to protect her village.

As time passed, he watched the matron's eyes grow cold.

He talked too early. His first steps came too soon. He forgot he wasn't supposed to be able to read. With each slip up, more whispers came from her lips of "demon".

Soon, she forgot the woman she had respected and saw only him. Blonde hair and blue eyes, not like that of his mother. Whisker marks, a mark of the demon.

He had never been accused of being too smart before and he found he didn't like it. Not one bit.

Sai was there with him. He hadn't remembered that.

Logically, he had known the other boy was an orphan, but he'd never had reason to think on the other boy's parentage. He didn't like that he'd missed so much about someone who was important to him.

Sai called him an idiot, and that made him feel a little better.

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In one year, four very special children had been born.

One the adopted daughter of an average couple. One the scion of a noble clan. One the offspring of a whore. One a hero, born to heroes.

Had circumstances been different, these four from very different origins would never have met.

As it would turn out, these four _would_ meet, as they had in a previous life, and together, they would become legend.


End file.
